PhD ceremony Mr. T. Zhu: Toward opening up the black box for market orientation. The role of social networks inside firms

PhD ceremony: Mr. T. Zhu

Dissertation: Toward opening up the black box for market orientation. The role of social networks inside firms

Promotor(s): prof. R.T.A.J. Leenders, prof. W.A. Dolfsma

Faculty: Economics

This thesis focuses on the concept of market orientation, referring to the way in which a firm is organized such that it may respond to changes in the market (Kohli and Jaworski 1990). This thesis studies how MO develops and induces innovation. The central research question this thesis tried to answer is: “How do intrafirm social networks of employees produce or help produce MO and, consequently, improve firm performance?”

This thesis assumes that employee’s social interactions are a key element to shape individual employee’s MO and innovation output. To further study how employees’ social interactions affect Market Orientation to performance link, this thesis used a Social Network (SN) perspective to improve current understanding of how employees’ status of being connected to others influence their MO behaviors and innovation output. Four interrelated studies provide an answer to this central research question, thus allowing this thesis to contribute to the MO literature by accounting for the role of social interactions in the workplace.